I will leave hardcore political blogging to those better equipped. But after I read
this article by Wendell Potter, a former healthcare insider, who mentioned
Remote Area Medical's trip to Wise, VA (also
here) as a motivator for abandoning his former job and lobbying for real healthcare reform, I had to link to it. These volunteer doctors, originally intended to do drop-in medicine in the Amazon and Congo, spend 60% of their time doing work
inside the USA. Potter worked for CIGNA, who used to be our insurer, and he has two important things to say about healthcare:
- big for-profit insurers have hijacked our health care system and turned it into a giant ATM for Wall Street investors
- the industry is using its massive wealth and influence to determine what is (and is not) included in the health care reform legislation members of Congress are now writing
A lot of people recognize these things already, but it's important to have someone like him testify to them before the Congress. Potter says,
What I saw happening over the past few years was a steady movement away from the concept of insurance and toward "individual responsibility," a term used a lot by insurers and their ideological allies. This is playing out as a continuous shifting of the financial burden of health care costs away from insurers and employers and onto the backs of individuals. As a result, more and more sick people are not going to the doctor or picking up their prescriptions because of costs. If they are unfortunate enough to become seriously ill or injured, many people enrolled in these plans find themselves on the hook for such high medical bills that they are losing their homes to foreclosure or being forced into bankruptcy.
As an industry spokesman, I was expected to put a positive spin on this trend that the industry created and euphemistically refers to as "consumerism" and to promote so-called "consumer-driven" health plans. I ultimately reached the point of feeling like a huckster.
And,
...when I heard members of Congress reciting talking points like the ones I used to write to scare people away from real reform. I'll have more to say about that over the coming weeks and months, but, for now, remember this: whenever you hear a politician or pundit use the term "government-run health care" and warn that the creation of a public health insurance option that would compete with private insurers (or heaven forbid, a single-payer system like the one Canada has) will "lead us down the path to socialism," know that the original source of the sound bite most likely was some flack like I used to be.
Bottom line: I ultimately decided the stakes are too high for me to just sit on the sidelines and let the special interests win again. So I have joined forces with thousands of other Americans who are trying to persuade our lawmakers to listen to us for a change, not just to the insurance and drug company executives who are spending millions to shape reform to benefit them and the Wall Street hedge fund managers they are beholden to.
I really, really hope Obama doesn't cave on the public insurance option.
So does Krugman.
